Saturday 4 March 2017

New work - Spinny Forms

I had a week to try a new process of making work, based on sketches made the woods a couple of weeks ago. I carried on with a process of merging form, colour and line from separate sources to make new images back at my studio. These are some of them - about A6 on watercolour 300gsm.



I've experimented mainly with my fave watercolours, inkpot water; which is very watered down acrylic Payne's Grey ink which holds a nice grainy residue, and undiluted Payne's Grey. I've altered the order in which I've applied it, and experimented with adding Indian Ink, Graphitone pencil and acrylic paint.

I started with a fluid, wet and fat vertical mark in watercolour or inkpot water that represents the space between tree trunks and maybe let it dry. Then there are similar shapes, referencing my original two sketches in a contrasting colour. They generally taper at the top and are fatter at the bottom. Then the Payne's Grey ink moves the wet medium about in uncontrolled ways - always fascinating.

I've been trying to take this further and have gone off on quite a few tangents, which have ended when I realised that I had lost the spontaneity of my original response. It seems to happen when I start with the idea that 'this is a painting', and I pressure myself, and I stop playing. So that's something to be aware of again.

I got a bit closer to keeping spontaneity and scaling up in this one (with Indian Ink) - a bit larger than A4.


I think what might take me further along that route would be to attempt a horizontal piece that could perhaps echo someone walking through the spinny.

I attempted some small compositions. But I think again, these could be tangents I don't want to follow at the moment. I do like them though, the second lot seem to have more freshness and I might incorporate them in something else... but I think I am just beginning to spot and follow motifs in them and that is the time to stop.



Thank you for reading.